GUIDE [WIP] DDSopt & Texture Overhauls

[z929669]

Discussion thread:
DDSopt Guide by STEP
Wiki Link

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GET DDSopt:
Github Pre-release versions
Official Nexus versions (select pre-release update 4)

[Lauren]

Yeah, I don't know. I've got a .bsa now myself. ss below

 

 

 

 

 

[peppergomez]

No joy again. Still creating a bunch of folders (grass, music, meshes, etc) and no BSA file. No idea what I am doing wrong. Crap. This **** is complicated.

 

Just to verify- you ARE putting a check beside Ignore>Don't process any of the known file types

Right?

 

Also, are you clicking Use Folder or Save when choosing the output folder?

I have been doing Use Folder since that's what the instructions have said to do thus far.

[mishmash]

"For the input file, I chseo Vanilla Optimized\Dawnguard" - add .bsa to the end.

[mishmash]

yes to ignore if you're finished optimising if you tell it to ignore it is just moving stuff around, i.e. unpacking or re-packing a bsa archive

 

PS re. your question about step 8 before - this step is concerned with keeping backups of your optimised vanilla BSAs, like your actual vanilla ones, keep these in a folder wherever you want to. Ultimately you move a copy of these into your skyrim/data folder to overwrite the vanilla stuff in there.

[peppergomez]

Forgive me if I am confused, but thje input file is the source directory, which is a folder structure, and not the destination directory, which is where I am saving the BSA. I did add .bsa to the end for that.

 

 

I tried again, and this time on the Save As menu for the destination/output directory, I chose Save and not Use Folder. It did create a BSA file.

 

I hope I did this correctly.

[mishmash]

Yeah sorry I just saw that, I skimmed the first time. I thought you weren't saving it as a BSA hence the folders, bit drunk :P

[peppergomez]

Heh, no prob. Whatcha drinking?

[peppergomez]

My next question (and I do hope they will end soon, haha):

 

I have the 4 archive files of my Vanilla Optimized textures that I created using Winrar:

 

HRDLC1 through 3

STD

 

From reading the instructions here

https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:DDSopt_%26_Texture_Overhauls#tab=DDSopt_Optimization

 

it's not clear to me what I should do with these 4 archive files.

At this point, I only have 2 BSA files in my Skyrim>Data directory:

Dawnguard.bsa and Dragonborn.bsa. I just copied them there after creating them from the optimized DLC folders using DDSopt.

 

These 4 archive files are not BSA files, but are the folder structures for either HighResTexturePack01 through 03 or for Skyrim - Textures.bsa.  I assume when the optimized versions are  copied back into the Skyrim>Data folder they need to be reconverted into BSA format, right?  If so, I don't see the instructions for that process.

 

 

Also, what about the other vanilla .bsa files that weren't optimized, but that I still removed from the Skyrim>Data folder as per the instructions? There are the following:

Skyrim - Animations

Skyrim - Interface

Skryim- Invalidation

Skyrim- Meshes

Skyrim - Misc

Skyrim - Shaders

Skyrim - Sounds

Skyrim - Voices

Skyrim - VoicesExtra

Update

 

Aren't they going to be needed back in the main Skyrim>Data folder?

 

Below is a screenshot of my current folder status:

 

Top folder is my main Skyrim Data folder.

 

Middle folder is the folder with all the original Skyrim (and DLC BSA files).

Am I correct in thinking that the Dawnguard, Dragonborn, HRDLC, and Skyrim - Textures BSA files will stay in this folder, but that the rest of the BSA files (which I listed above) should go back into the Skyrim>Data folder?

 

Bottom folder is my Vanilla Optimized folder and shows the 4 archive files of optimzed HRDLC and STD that I am unsure now what to do with. I know they need to go back into the main Skyrim>Data folder, but because they are no longer BSA files, I'm not sure how to proceed.

 

 

 

Note that I am using Mod Organizer, and not Wrye Bash.

[mishmash]

Guinness, then whiskey (probably a mistake)

 

Those four archives of loose files of textures (STD, HRDLC1 etc.) will NOT be made back into BSAs and will replace the original BSAs and be installed like any other mod that will follow in STEP so the four original BSAs of those only need to be in your backup vanilla folder now.

So you should have your dawnguard and dragonborn BSAs in skyrim/data and:

 

Skyrim - Sounds.bsa

Skyrim - Voices.bsa

Update 

all vanilla and unmodified.

 

 

Then you will also need to put back in:

 

Skyrim - Animations.bsa

Skyrim - Interface.bsa

Skyrim - Meshes.bsa

Skyrim - Misc.bsa

Skyrim - Shaders.bsa

Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa

 

Which you have or should optimise as per: https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:BSA_Extraction_and_Optimization#tab=Optimizing_Vanilla_BSAs

 

 

The middle panel is how the STD etc. are installed at the beginning in WB. Hope this helps I have to crawl into bed now.

[Kelmych]

I'll fix the wording in the guide to make this clearer (or you can if you get to it before I do, or if the wording isn't clear). The BSAs referenced in step 8 are just the vanilla texture BSAs (Skyrim - textures and 3 HRDLC) and the addon DLC BSAs. As mishmash mentions, leave the others where they are. There is some optimization that can be done with these other BSAs as discussed in the BSA Extraction and Optimization guide as mishmash also mentions, but that's a separate issue.

[peppergomez]

Thanks Mishmash.

 

Installed BSAopt and followed the instructions to convert the remaining 6 vanilla BSA files. One thing that doesn't seem right though is the final file size of each BSA file after converting it. For instance, Skyrim - Animations.bsa went from its original size of 41,373 KB vanilla to 339 KB optimized. That seems wrong to me--way too small.

 

I notice in your screenshot you posted that your Skyrim data folder has a Skyrim - Animations.bat file size of 39,228 KB. Is that post-BSAopt?

 

I'm not sure what's up with the file size after doing this. I've tried this twice now (I made sure to delete the first version before trying to save a second). The first time, Show Recursive wasn't checked, so the second time, I checked it. See screenshot for my BSAopt window:

 

 

Note I am not renaming the BSA as in the instructions because I am saving it to a different folder and have the vanilla BSA files in a different folder, not in the Skyrim>Data folder. So there's no overwriting.

 

Are there any settings that I need to change within BSAopt? I haven't made any tweaks.

[Kelmych]

When I ran BSAopt 2.0 on Skyrim - Animations.bsa the result for me was 39,228 KB. I can't read any of the text on your screenshot; the image I get from the url is much too small for that. I have default settings in BSAopt with compression at 10 (maximum), and Settings with 5 checks (none on skip hash-check or skip broken files). Game is on Automatic.

 

You can also use DDSopt to process BSAs, so try that and see what results. The file sizes should very close to the same.

[peppergomez]

Hmm, tried again with those settings. File size for the optimized Skyrim - Animations.bsa is still 339 KB. I originally had Game set to Automatic. Tried it on Skyrim and still got the same result.

 

Tried using DDSopt and got a file size of 39,228 KB using Compression of 10 (maximum).

 

Note that I had a check next to Don't Process Any of the Known File Types At All (DDS, PNG, etc)---is that correct? 

 

Also, will a compression setting of 10 (max) results in any noticable degradation of quality in any of these BSA files- poorer animations, sound, etc. quality?

[eriahers]

I've reinstalled Skyrim and I'm trying to optimize my BSAs with DDSopt. Somehow the BSAs were recognized by DDSopt with my previous install and would automatically be the default program to open them with. This time, however, they were blank icons as if windows didn't know what to do with them. I've tried right-clicking them and making the default program DDSopt, but every time I click on the DDSopt x64 icon, nothing happens and it goes back to the "open with" window with another program as it's default.

 

I can't for the life of me figure out how I was able to have DDSopt the default program for BSAs before, and can't get it to work now...

[Kelmych]

Hmm, tried again with those settings. File size for the optimized Skyrim - Animations.bsa is still 339 KB. I originally had Game set to Automatic. Tried it on Skyrim and still got the same result.

Which version of BSAopt did you use?

 

Tried using DDSopt and got a file size of 39,228 KB using Compression of 10 (maximum).

 

Note that I had a check next to Don't Process Any of the Known File Types At All (DDS, PNG, etc)---is that correct? 

Yes.

The reason for this "optimization" of the the BSAs is to remove duplicate copies of resources and to increase the level of compression from that used by Bethesda when they created the files originally.

 

Also, will a compression setting of 10 (max) results in any noticable degradation of quality in any of these BSA files- poorer animations, sound, etc. quality?

The compression is lossless so the BSA file still has the exact same information but a better compression algorithm is used. The only issue is whether the Skyrim engine can properly read the BSAs with higher compression. There are two BSAs (Sounds and Voices) where this seems to be an issue, but it doesn't seem to be an issue with the other BSAs.